Welcome to the Furball, folks. This forum might appear to be a readjustment of my policies here, but in actuality, it is complete capitulation. I am tired of refereeing argumentative threads about pit bulls, breastfeeding, global warming, smoking, home schooling, tattooing and all of the other subjects that many people seem incapable of discussing without arguing. I give up. Now that I have given up, what do I do? Do I just create a list of crap we can't talk about? I thought about it, but that would be a PITA to administer and enforce. I decided instead to open this romper room, where all the boys and girls that cannot work and play well with others can hang out and argue about Walmart's fascist plans for the USA. I joke, but I am tired of tripping over the same old arguments and cleaning up the same messes every single day. Some of you are turning the running of this place into a freaking chore.

So, now we have a place to banish all the threads about things that consistently disrupt the site and cause trouble, but people seem to really want to talk about. I know that there will be people that are not happy about this situation, but most of those will be the ones starting the trouble in the first place. Go figure.

What are the ground rules here? I am not complete sure yet, but posting rules will be relaxed somewhat. Messages posted here will not be indexed or searchable with the rest of the site and there will be a warning message when anyone enters this area. Although the posting rules will be relaxed, we are not going to allow people to cause trouble or insult people gratuitously, or to make asses of themselves here generally. We are going to have to make this up as we go. This thread will be a placeholder for what will eventually be a definitive list of guidelines for this forum. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this forum and any suggestions you have for its posting guidelines here. Welcome. Eric

If things aren't quite a bit more relaxed here rules wise, we're just going to end up with two GNG's.

now, i'm not saying that it should be a free for all, but a definite relaxation on rules around insults, language, and pictures would be necessary for this forum to be unique from GNG.

Maybe a warning "if you click here, you may be offended or see the better part of a buttcheek

or perhaps set a number of posts/amt. of time at GT before this forum appears and/or is postable just to prevent people from registering under another name and causing all sorts of hell.

in all honesty, i think that either you have to let pretty much anything go here, or keep it to GNG, for two reasons: one...like i said before, otherwise we just have two GNG's. and b...if you don't, i think you're creating a hell of a lot more headache for yourself, mods, and admins when people get offended and report posts left and right.

If things aren't quite a bit more relaxed here rules wise, we're just going to end up with two GNG's.

now, i'm not saying that it should be a free for all, but a definite relaxation on rules around insults, language, and pictures would be necessary for this forum to be unique from GNG.

Maybe a warning "if you click here, you may be offended or see the better part of a buttcheek

or perhaps set a number of posts/amt. of time at GT before this forum appears and/or is postable just to prevent people from registering under another name and causing all sorts of hell.

in all honesty, i think that either you have to let pretty much anything go here, or keep it to GNG, for two reasons: one...like i said before, otherwise we just have two GNG's. and b...if you don't, i think you're creating a hell of a lot more headache for yourself, mods, and admins when people get offended and report posts left and right.

just my opinions, of course, and you know what opinions are like

This forum and this site are never going to be a skin pic site. There are plenty of other places online to indulge such appetites and this site is not one of them. That part of the guidelines will not change. The relaxation of the posting rules I mentioned would be in the area of interpersonal issues. If people want to argue here they can do so. We will relax the rules to allow for some heated exchange, but no one is going to be allowed to get stupid about it. This forum will be as close to a free-for-all as GT will ever get under my leadership, but there will still be limits. We just need to define them. Eric

This forum and this site are never going to be a skin pic site. There are plenty of other places online to indulge such appetites and this site is not one of them. That part of the guidelines will not change. The relaxation of the posting rules I mentioned would be in the area of interpersonal issues. If people want to argue here they can do so. We will relax the rules to allow for some heated exchange, but no one is going to be allowed to get stupid about it. This forum will be as close to a free-for-all as GT will ever get under my leadership, but there will still be limits. We just need to define them. Eric

I didn't mean turning into a nudie site at all, don't get me wrong

as far as the other stuff...like i said, just throwing my thoughts out like you asked in the first post.

if i had to define specifics, i'd say that:

1) pretty much anything should go language wise, whether it ends up blocked by the filter or not. people get away with a lot of stuff in GNG, so it really wouldn't be THAT big of a step up.

2) no trolling allowed; just because things are more lax here doesn't mean the members need to see blatant troll posts, ads, etc etc. (i'm sure that goes w/o saying, but i'm having some fun with it).

3) what happens here, stays here: you and another member can get into it all you want in this forum, but it doesn't leave this forum or degenerate into petty personal insults elsewhere on the site.

4) no death threats/physical harm threats.

other than the basics, thats all i have to offer suggestion wise. It will be interesting to see where this forum ends up, and whether it turns out to be a good or bad thing in the long run. If i had to lay my money down, i know which side i'd lay it on...but i'd still only call it 60-40 odds in my favor

Seems to me that the interesting people will stay in GNG and the interesting threads will end up in Furball. Not criticizing the decision; it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Jane

Apparently we have a very different opinion on the meaning of the word interesting, as it applies to threads. I don't consider the same few knuckleheads arguing over the same old topics ad infinitum interesting. I consider it tiring. Eric

Do you expect the contentuous threads to be started here, or is this the final dumping ground for them from other forums (i.e. religious, political, etc.)

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The idea is intriguing, and I hope it works at keeping the peace and saving you trouble. Have you considered nominating more moderators, rather than letting every decision come to you?

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Apparently we have a very different opinion on the meaning of the word interesting, as it applies to threads. I don't consider the same few knuckleheads arguing over the same old topics ad infinitum interesting. I consider it tiring. Eric

Apparently, as so frequently happens, I misunderstood. I assumed that in addition to the hot button threads, any others that got "spirited" would be moved here also. In any case, I intended no criticism. Whatever you choose to do here is, by definition, correct.

How is your workload going to change because of this? Either you or a moderator still has to move threads here to die; wouldn't it be just as easy to lock the threads?

Why don't you try setting up a temporary posting ban system for posters that cause you to do work, but you wouldn't outright ban? Like have it say something like: your posting privileges have been revoked for __24__ hours due to your behavior in thread _____. I suspect that if people got warnings like that they might change their behavior, shape up, and be more productive in the future. Naturally this will not work perfectly, but it might force people with hot tempers to cool their heels and thereby improve the general quality of the site.